For if men walk unarmed in the streets of a night, they are thought fair game for all the rogues and bullies who prowl from tavern to tavern seeking for diversion.

They do not often attack an armed man; but a quiet citizen who has left his sword behind him seldom escapes without a sweating, if nothing worse befall him." "And what is this sweating ?" asked Tom, as the pair sallied forth into the darkness of the streets.
Here and there an oil lamp shed a sickly glow for a short distance; but, for the most part, the streets were very dim and dark.

Lights gleamed in a good many upper windows still; but below--where the shutters were all up--darkness and silence reigned.
"Sweating," answered Cale, "is a favourite pastime with the bullies of London streets.

A dozen or more with drawn swords surround a hapless and unarmed passer by.

They will close upon him in a circle, the points of their swords towards him, and then one will prick him in the rear, causing him to turn quickly round, whereupon another will give him a dig in the same region, and again he will jump and face about; and so they will keep the poor fellow spinning round and round, like a cockchafer on a pin, until the sweat pours off him, and they themselves are weary of the sport.